Almighty Game Designer Chapter 57: The profit secret of card games

　　 Is the domestic card game really fun?

　　 This is a matter of opinion, different players have different tastes.

　　 Many people criticize card games for being shoddy, monotonous, and repetitive. Indeed, this is true.

　　 But it just makes money.

　　 can make money, it means that the players recognize it.

　　 Why do players recognize it? Because players find it fun.

　　 This is a very strange phenomenon. Players scold it while paying for it.

　　Why can card games make money? Where is it fun?

　　 This is a relatively vague proposition. If Chen Mo is asked to write a paper specifically explaining the core of the card game, it is estimated that he can write tens of thousands of words.

　　 In short, the fun of domestic card games mainly comes from three aspects.

　　 The first is the fun of collecting cards and developing cards.

　　This is based on the player's recognition of the card role.

　　 Once a mobile game company made a first-generation card with the theme of "One Piece" (completely flipping "My name is MT"), a local tyrant entered the game without saying anything and directly charged a few thousand dollars just to get it An eagle-eyed Mihawk.

　　 There is also an unknown Three Kingdoms card game. It is still in the testing stage. A certain local tyrant entered the game without saying angrily for five thousand, just to draw a Zhuge Liang, and as a result, there was no general Zhuge Liang in the game.

　　In the end, the game company urgently worked overtime and made Zhuge Liang out.

　　Like in "My name is MT", many players swipe dungeons every day like a daily routine, collect purple card fragments, or spend a lot of money for ten consecutive draws, all in order to draw the cards they want.

　　 And game designers will deliberately adjust the card skills and combat power to match the plot (or fine-tune according to the character's popularity), these are all in order to cultivate the player's identification with the card role.

　　 Only when this sense of identity is established, the card will become valuable and players will pay for it.

　　 And once this card value system is established, it means that there are differences between different cards, and the player's desire to collect and cultivate will be satisfied, and he will feel that the money is worthwhile.

　　 Therefore, the key to the profitability of card games is to establish a card value system that can be recognized by players, just like stamp collecting, constantly selling new cards to players.

　　 After the player gets the card they want, in order to make the card stronger, they will continue to charge up for it to upgrade, upgrade stars, upgrade skills, and so on. Every time the card is upgraded, the player can feel the growth and make him feel that the money is not in vain.

　　 This is also a manifestation of the "numerical stimulation" mentioned before.

　　This is the core fun of all cards. It is a very mature and reusable model. That’s why the card mobile games of previous lives have become so popular.

　　 The second is the fun of exploring the lineup and formulating battle strategies independently.

The battle system of 　　 card game may seem monotonous, but it is actually quite rich. In "My name is MT", each card has three abilities: normal attack, skill attack and passive. In terms of character design, the battle system of World of Warcraft is used as a blueprint, and the skills of each character are also different.

　　 are the same area damage skills, including blizzard type (full-screen attack), whirlwind type (three units in the front row), lightning chain type (three units at random), penetrating shooting type (two units in vertical row) Wait for the difference.

　　Skill damage is divided into spells, physics, and the difference between individual and group.

　　Healing skills are the same. There are single milks and group milks.

　　 In addition, there are multiple combat abilities such as damage reduction, rebirth, and continuous damage. Basically, all kinds of skills that can be thought of can be forced into the card combat system.

　　, coupled with complex factors such as card position, sequence of shots, attribute restraint, captain skills, etc., greatly enhance the playability of the card game's combat system.

　　Of course, this combat system cannot be compared to the end game at all, but it is enough for mobile game players.

　　This combat system can perfectly cover most of the worldview, such as anime such as Pirate, Naruto, or martial arts novels, as long as the packaging is changed.

　　 There is a cyclic restraint relationship between various combat abilities, such as a single milk gram spike, a group milk spike, a group milk gram range damage and so on. Players really want to find the five most powerful cards among dozens of cards, which requires a very long trial and repeated experience sharing.

　　Because the acquisition of rare cards is strictly controlled, it costs money or time. It takes a lot of investment to test the actual combat power of each card.

　　This process is also fun and fulfilling for players. Therefore, the combat system of card games perfectly fits the card training system. As an enduring classic combat system, it is enough for players to play for 3 to 5 years without getting tired.

　　 The third is marketing strategy and numerical stimulation.

　　This is a very broad content, such as operational activities (seven days login, sign-in, growth fund, etc.), daily benefits (maintenance diamonds, physical strength, online rewards, etc.), preliminary numerical structure...

　　 Of course, these content is not only exclusive to card games, it has basically become the standard for all domestic mobile games, and it has also been widely popularized in other game types such as SLG (strategy game) and FPS (shooting game). Come to ~IndoMTL.com~, but the earliest origin should be sprouted in page games, popular in card mobile games, and finally popularized in all domestic mobile games.

　　 Of course, this kind of "Pavlovian" numerical stimulation has been sprayed to perfection by countless players and game reviewers, but after spraying back, almost no mobile game company dares not do these things.

　　 Why? Because it is simple and effective, once it is removed, game data and revenue will drop significantly.

　　 This "numerical stimulation" system works like this.

　　 First of all, the game must be free, to attract as many players as possible into the game, these people may not plan to spend money at all, it doesn't matter, let's talk about it first.

　　 After coming in, there will be very detailed novice guidance, so that players can experience the core fun and gameplay of the game as soon as possible, and at the same time, do not make any difficulty in numerical values, so that players can go all the way.

　　 This is the same principle as the first 300,000 words free of charge on the web. The experience is pre-existing and the post-payment is post-installed. Experience first and then pay, don’t charge if you are not satisfied.

　　 However, this situation cannot be maintained for too long, as long as one week and as short as three days, players will inevitably encounter some setbacks.

　　 In this kind of game, recharged players and non-recharged players are naturally unequal. In order for players to pay, card points must be set.

　　 The so-called card point is to get players stuck, let them encounter setbacks, and let players recharge their money to buy combat power and continue to challenge higher levels.

　　 But this creates a problem. If a player is unwilling to spend money, what should I do if I get stuck? There is a high probability that he will give up this game and stop playing it.

　　How to let these players stay? Very simple, send money.